Guest Author • Feb 11, 2016 •
James D Murray, University of California, Davis and Jenny Graves, La Trobe University In a world with a ballooning population and deteriorating environment, we will need to use every trick in the book to stave off mass starvation, disease and political chaos. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, there are … Read More
Siouxsie Wiles • Feb 04, 2016 •
Earlier this week the WHO declared the Zika virus outbreak in the Americas a Public Health Emergency of International Concern and yesterday the CDC reported that someone in Dallas had become infected with the virus by having sex with someone infected overseas. Meanwhile, the internet is awash with claims that genetically-modified mosquitoes are to blame for the outbreak in Brazil. In … Read More
Peter Griffin • Aug 19, 2015 •
A group of scientific institutions in the UK and Europe have today sent an open letter to Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, expressing dismay at Scotland’s proposal to ban GM crops in the country. Here’s the letter in full… 17th August 2015 Dear Mr Lochhead Your announcement that the Scottish Government proposes to ban … Read More
Peter Dearden • Jul 08, 2015 •
Genetics is a powerful tool that has transformed the animals and plants around us. How much more useful could it be if we used all our abilities? … Read More
Peter Dearden • May 25, 2015 •
Oxitec's GM mosquitos may be a very effective way to control insects that carry human disease … Read More
Peter Dearden • May 07, 2015 •
The recent production of germline genetically modified human embryos raises ethical questions for us all. Read More
Grant Jacobs • Feb 16, 2015 •
Below is a lightly-edited copy of an op-ed related to the Food Matters Aotearoa event at Te Papa this weekend. As it’s not being used by the newspaper, I’ve put it here. I’ve added a few thoughts about Steffan Browning’s press release at the end. —–=+=—– Op-ed draft Policy needs to … Read More
Peter Dearden • Aug 05, 2014 •
Peter K. Dearden I have been doing a lot of travelling recently, and have become increasingly perplexed by the term ‘electronic device’ and what to do with them on planes. Some say turn off all your devices; does that mean heart pace makers, insulin pumps, and calculator watches? Some say you can have small ones on and others off. All … Read More
Guest Author • Jun 23, 2014 •
By Peter Langridge, Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics Welcome to GM in Australia [Ed: See Grant Jacob’s three part series on GM in New Zealand here], a series looking at the facts, ethics, regulations and research into genetically modified crops. In this first instalment, Peter Langridge describes two GM techniques: selective breeding and genetic engineering. Genetic modification … Read More
Peter Griffin • May 22, 2013 •
It has taken nearly two months, but Food Standards Australia and New Zealand has finally responded to criticisms of its regulation of GM foods after it was accused of “systemic neglect” in its regulatory regime by Canterbury University’s Professor Jack Heinemann. The response is well worth a read for Sciblogs regulars who have followed the debate Heinemann and … Read More